Blue Whale
What Would the Ocean Be Without the Blue Whale?
How is it possible that the largest animal on the planet is endangered? As the largest mammal to ever exist, the blue whale plays an extremely important role in our ecosystem. By maintaining a stable food chain and feeding many other marine animals, this astonishing animal even helps to provide a cleaner atmosphere, contributing to the overall health of the marine environment for the whole planet (Why Are Whales Important?, 2015).
Vital Role in the Food Chain
The Blue Whale, also known as the Balaenoptera Musculus, controls the vast ocean, growing up to 100 feet long and weighing up to 200 tons (Blue Whale, 2015, National Geographic). This magnificent creature has a defined niche in its habitat helping to regulate the flow of food in the enormous sea. As seen in the map below, these animals range widely, inhabiting both coastal waters and the open ocean. These immense animals swim from subpolar to subtropical latitudes helping to maintain a stable food chain and ensuring species evenness throughout the sea. This remarkable creature makes sure specific species do not over populate the vast ocean which is a habitat for over 1 million organisms (Why Are Whales Important?, 2015).
Despite its immense size, this giant of the ocean feeds on some of the tiniest marine life swimming in the sea. This small shrimplike animal that makes up the Blue Whale’s diet is called krill (WWF Global, 2015). A single adult Blue Whale can consume up to 40 million krill per day using their massive tongues to force water out through their baleen plates, leaving thousands of krill left to consume. As a result of their great consumption of this small shrimplike animal, the Blue Whale helps to stabilize the aquatic ecosystem (Blue Whale, 2015, World Wildlife Foundation).
Essential Role in Nutrient Cycling
As you can imagine, if the Blue Whale were to go extinct it would disrupt the entire food chain and cause other species to suddenly boom. When any animal goes extinct within a food web, it affects all of the species. Species may be seen as thriving in the beginning due to the absence of a large predator, but over time species, such as krill, will overpopulate and as result cause other species to die out or decrease in numbers greatly. Consuming 40 million krill per day this large consumer acts as keystone species, keeping the habitat balanced. This great mammal plays an essential role in sustaining the evenness of the ecosystem, making sure certain species do not overpopulate and destroy the populations of other species below them in the food chain (Why Are Whales Important?, 2015).
Did You Know?
Around 100 people can fit in the mouth of the blue whale, and yet, it eats one of the smallest animals on the planet - krill (Blue Whale Facts, 2015)
As a great surprise to many, the Blue Whale’s poop plays a vital role in the ecosystem as this great mammal plays the role of a nutrient cycler, helping to cycle nutrients, specifically carbon throughout the sea. The nutrients present in this creatures excrement helps to stimulate the growth of phytoplanktons that pull carbon from the atmosphere making a healthier and cleaner environment for all animals. Studies show that as much as 400,000 tons of carbon are extracted from the air due to these great whales every year (Why Are Whales Important?, 2015)!
Additionally, the Blue Whale transfers nutrients throughout the vast sea through its long migration routes. All of the nutrients gathered in the cold northern waters when the Blue Whale is feeding is stored and then released when they migrate down south to have their calves. Acting as a K-strategist species the Blue Whale produces relatively low numbers of offspring, each being born after a gestation period of one year. As a result, the Blue Whale will make this migration one time a year, releasing large amounts of nutrients throughout the sea each time (Mynott, 2013).
Did You Know?
Blue Whales can reach 100 feet in length and 150 tons in weight. Their length equals the length of two school busses and their weight equals the weight of 30 adult elephants (Blue Whale Facts, 2015).
Furthermore, the immense carcass of this animal contributes to carbon cycling as well. When the carcass of this creature falls to the depths of the ocean it brings carbon that has been obtained at the surface to the sea floor. As you can image with its immense size, the Blue Whale contains heavily carbon-filled tissue, releasing the most carbon out of all the whales. In addition, the carcass provides food for hundreds of organisms in the ecosystem. As the carcass falls to the vast sea floor organisms race to this food source, as it provides them with plentiful resources. Many scavengers feed off of the whale’s soft tissue while other organisms such as deep-sea worms and crustaceans feast on the carcass as well. Lastly the feasting of detritivores breaks down the final remains of this enormous animal (Mynott, 2013).
In conclusion, the extinction of this massive creature would result in great consequences for the scavengers that feed on this animal’s corpse and the overall health of the ocean. This magnificent animal plays a vital role in the ecosystem, and is an essential factor in the enormous habitat in which it lives (Why Are Whales Important?, 2015).